Orchard Park police are investigating a particularly gruesome killing, the beheading of a woman, after her husband — an influential member of the local Muslim community — reported her death to police Thursday.

“He came to the police station at 6:20 p.m. [Thursday] and told us that she was dead,” Orchard Park Police Chief Andrew Benz said late this morning.

Muzzammil Hassan told police that his wife was at his business, Bridges TV, on Thorn Avenue in the village. Officers went to that location and discovered her body.

Muzzammil Hassan is the founder and chief executive officer of Bridges TV, which he launched in 2004, amid hopes that it would help portray Muslims in a more positive light.

The killing apparently occurred some time late Thursday afternoon. Detectives still are looking for the murder weapon…

Daniel Pipes has been tracking Bridges since 2004. See this helpful timeline updated with the latest gruesome developments. Pipes notes:

1) No, this is not at all obviously about domestic violence. It is obviously about a totalitarian ideology in our midst that authorities like district attorneys refuse to open their eyes to. Phyllis Chesler establishes this point beyond a doubt in a forthcoming Middle East Quarterly article, “Are Honor Killings Simply Domestic Violence?” Spring 2009, pp. 61-69.